Meet the Press: Hsu Who?

Tim Russert did his best to keep Sunday's Meet the Press a "NO HSU ZONE."

MR. TIM RUSSERT: Our issues this Sunday: The top U.S. commander in Iraq, Army General David Petraeus, will testify before Congress tomorrow after the Independent Commission on the Security Forces of Iraq reports that Iraq’s army will not be able to secure their own country for at least a year and that the Iraq national police force is dysfunctional, corrupt and should be disbanded. With us, an exclusive interview with two of the men who wrote the report, the chairman, retired Marine General James Jones, and the former police commissioner of Washington D.C., Charles Ramsey.

Then, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee was in Iraq this week. Democratic Senator Joe Biden shares his finding this morning on MEET THE PRESS.

And former Senator Fred Thompson finally enters the presidential race.

(Videotape, September 5, 2007)

FMR. SEN. FRED THOMPSON (R-TN) I’m running for president of the United States.

MR. JAY LENO: All right!

(End videotape)

MR. RUSSERT: As the other Republican candidates exchange fire in a New Hampshire debate.

(Videotape, September 5, 2007)

MR. MITT ROMNEY: The surge is apparently working.

SEN. JOHN McCAIN: No, not apparently. It’s working.

(End videotape)

MR. RUSSERT: Senator Larry Craig says again he’ll retire. Is this time for real? Bill campaigns for Hillary; Oprah for Barack. And the Democrats gather in Miami tonight for another debate. Insights and analysis from David Brody of the Christian Broadcasting Network and John Harwood of The Wall Street Journal and CNBC.

But first, the war in Iraq. An independent commission has now reported to Congress and the president about the state of readiness of the Iraqi army and the national police force. Here to share those findings are retired Marine General James Jones, former D.C. police commissioner Charles Ramsey.

Gentlemen, welcome both.

And off they went. No time was set aside to deal with the Norman Hsu scandal.

It was well into the roundtable segment when Norman Hsu's name came up; and in the entire hour, it was only uttered once. ONCE!

In a discussion of Oprah Winfrey campaigning for Barack Obama, Bill Clinton's impact on Hillary's campaign was addressed.

It was then that John Harwood mentioned Hsu.

MR. HARWOOD: And they’re beginning to do that to some extent. Bill Clinton’s a huge asset to her—great communicator, great brand with suburban voters, with African-American voters, constituencies that would be important to her. The downside of Bill Clinton is that, to some degree, that casts Hillary Clinton as a candidate looking backwards, looking to the past. Barack Obama’s trying to be the future-oriented candidate. And the problems with this donor, Norman Hsu, is another thing that evokes the issues that arose in the past about Bill Clinton, some of the campaign finance stuff.

MR. RUSSERT: So the message to Hillary Clinton from her fellow Democrats will be if you’re going to claim the successes of the Clinton administration, you’re also going to have to accept responsibility for the shortcomings?

MR. HARWOOD: No doubt. And you’re also going to claim responsibility for Washington, how Washington is now, how it was before George Bush got to town. And Barack Obama and John Edwards both beginning to sharpen that argument, that they’re the ones who are really going to come and turn Washington upside-down far more than Hillary Clinton would.

That's it. That's all.

If Norman Hsu were the albatross around the Republicans' necks, you can be certain that Russert would have devoted a huge segment of his show to the scandal.

Bias? What bias?

Hsu? Hsu who?